This course complements the Greek Tragedy and Myth into Tragedy courses but also works extremely well as a stand-alone examination of Euripides as an author.
Euripides was the ‘new kid on the block’ when it came to writing plays in 5th century BC Athens. His work is rich and diverse displaying some of what Aristotle went on to define as tragic traits, but it also has elements of political commentary, protest and even comedic tropes. As such, it is not possible to define his body of work as ‘tragedy’ despite him referred to by most scholars as a ‘tragic poet’.
This course considers 14 plays by Euripides over a 12 week period, each week looking at one play in detail whilst at the same time thinking about how it fits into the overall body of his work and into (or otherwise) the tragic tradition.
As well as the extant plays, there will be a discussion of fragmentary plays in an attempt toreconstruct the running order of his festival entry of three plays and a satyr play in any given year.
No prior knowledge of the genre is necessary but it would be good to do some brief research ahead of each class. A handbook will be provided in both hard and soft copies with information about each of the classes and suggestions for further reading.
Set books are any version of all the extant plays of Euripides (preferably the Penguin, Aris and Philips or Loeb versions) and the 2 books of Euripides fragments published by the Loeb Classical Library, translated by Chris Collard and Martin Cropp. The extant plays to be considered in depth are: Hecabe; Ion; Bacchae; Electra; Hecuba; Andromache; Trojan Women; Medea; The Children of Heracles; Iphigenia at Aulis; Suppliant Women; Phoenician Women; Orestes and Rhesus.
The course will run on a Tuesday evening from 7-8.30 pm over two sets of 6 weeks with a two week ‘reading-break’ in between. The dates for the first set of classes are: 3/1/23; 10/1/23; 17/1/23; 24/1/23; 31/1/23 and 7/2/23. The second set of dates are: 28/2/23; 7/3/23; 14/3/23; 21/3/23; 28/3/23 and 4/4/23.
Euripides was the ‘new kid on the block’ when it came to writing plays in 5th century BC Athens. This course considers 14 plays by Euripides over a 12 week period, each week looking at one play in detail whilst at the same time thinking about how it fits into the overall body of his work and into (or otherwise) the tragic tradition. The course will run on a Tuesday evening from 7-8.30 pm over two sets of 6 weeks with a two week ‘reading-break’ in between. The dates for the first set of classes are: 3/1/23; 10/1/23; 17/1/23; 24/1/23; 31/1/23 and 7/2/23. The second set of dates are: 28/2/23; 7/3/23; 14/3/23; 21/3/23; 28/3/23 and 4/4/23.
Price: £260.00
For more information and to book go to: www.ginamay.co.uk/, email events@ginamay.co.uk, call Gina on 07873561560